Fallout: Annihilation
by Journeyman-93
Summary: The sequel to Fallout: a handful of dust. In the Canadian Wasteland, new mysteries and challenges await five travellers from the Mojave seeking peace from the endless war between the Legion and the NCR. But peace is elusive as another threat rises, a plan to change the apocalyptic world, and not for the better. (M for blood, guts, swearing and possible sexual references.)
1. The Wreck

_**You asked for it, now you can finally read it. It might take me a while to update, so be patient.**_

* * *

_"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."_

_William Shakespeare_

* * *

"Intruder alert." The mechanical voice sounded oddly calm. "Red alert, lethal force authorised."

A security bot whirred up to the entrance of the bunker, joined by three more robots and five men in power armour, all armed with energy weapons.

"Get ready, Paladins." The one in the middle, armed with a plasma caster, ordered. "They're not getting past us without a fight."

The alarm was still blaring, along with the security alert. The concrete and metal walls were illuminated by a dull red glow.

"What's attacking us?" One of the Paladins asked.

"Something stupid." Another one growled.

"Can the chatter." The Knight leading them ordered. "As soon as that door opens, start shooting."

Whoever was attacking was going to need a lot of firepower, they would be up against missiles, plasma, lasers and a lot of power armour.

Unbeknownst to the Brotherhood of Steel Paladins inside the bunker, the enemy had all of those things too and in quantity.

The bunker door was made of reinforced steel, fifteen centimetres thick and securely locked.

It had already withstood what had felt like a barrage of rockets, but according to the radar the enemy was still outside and bringing something large up.

Now they could hear a sharp grinding sound, piercing enough to hurt their ears. Their helmets weren't able to drown out the sound.

The grinding was getting closer, as it if was coming through the door.

"Sounds like a drill." One of the Paladins muttered.

The grinding was almost upon them. Weapons were fully charged and fingers were resting on triggers.

The grinding stopped.

"Why have they stopped?"

The door exploded inwards. Shards of jagged metal and billowing flame roared inside.

There was a short cry of pain. One of the Paladins had been impaled by a shard of steel.

Large figures were already climbing through the hole in the door, walking through the flames and raising weapons.

The Paladins and security robots opened fire, streams of plasma, lasers and lead filled the interior with light and cut down three of the attackers.

They never saw the rockets fly in.

The hostiles clambered over the wreckage and scattered body parts and into the base.

The only surviving Paladin, blood spurting from ruined legs, could only watch as the armoured foes strode in.

For a moment, he was looking at what appeared to be more Brotherhood of Steel Paladins.

Only these ones wore a different kind of armour, bronze coloured with a single eye slit and purple markings. They were not from the Brotherhood.

The armoured hostile saw the still breathing Paladin. He simply drew his handgun and shot him in the neck.

"Entrance secure." One of the soldiers reported.

"Secure the package."

"Copy that." The soldier's helmet made his voice sound raspy. "Eliminate everybody inside, leave no witnesses."

That was exactly what they did. No Paladin or Scribe survived after half an hour of fighting. The Brotherhood fought back bravely, but they were outmatched and only managed to kill a few enemy soldiers.

With nobody left to stop them, the unidentified soldiers blew the vault door open and retrieved their targets; several metal crates, each larger than a man, with hazard warnings and bio-seals.

The bunker was left as a silent tomb, for fifty corpses, all of its technology plundered. The entrance was sealed with concrete and abandoned.

It would be a while before the Canadian Brotherhood realised that the bunker was silent and longer still before they could act. Their enemies were several steps ahead.

* * *

Canada had seen some of the war when the Chinese had invaded America, landing in Alaska for its precious oil.

Few nukes had hit the land, but it was still scarred.

On a ridge overlooking a wide plain, littered with a wreckage from at least a hundred or more different vehicles, ranging from cars to tanks to aircraft, people were watching. There were two of them, but one of them was well hidden.

"You should keep your head down." A man with a gravelly voice said. "This is Iron Biter territory."

"They eat iron?" The woman ducked down and glanced at her friend, a ghoul wearing dark leather armour and carrying a customised sniper rifle. "Wouldn't that break their teeth?"

"No, they just want to sound intimidating." The ghoul was slotting bullets into magazines as he kept an eye out for trouble. "But they wear metal armour and have plenty of melee weapons, ranging from lead pipes to bumper swords." Ghost was an expert sniper and always carried a battered silenced rifle with him. His leather armour had several pouches containing ammunition and gadgets, along with a 12.7mm pistol and a few knives.

"Any guns?"

"A few." The ghoul stated. "I've seen a few carrying assault rifles and at least one minigun." He loaded the full clip into his rifle and chambered a round. "I'll keep an eye out. Mark might need your help."

Emily smirked. "They haven't made any progress with that computer, have they?"

"Apart from you, we're all hopeless hackers." Ghost shrugged. "Jin nearly broke it yesterday."

Emily clambered down the slope, carefully keeping her laser rifle from hitting the ground, and down to their makeshift camp. The others were below, engaged in various tasks.

Jin had stripped down a couple of 7.65mm pistols they had recovered and was cleaning them. He was imposing in his customised metal armour, with the right arm from a suit of power armour attached. He was good at fixing guns, but he preferred to use his power fist in battle.

Mark was sorting out ammunition and grenades for the upcoming move into the wreckage. He was the unofficial leader of the group, a former NCR soldier. He still wore the long trench coat and light combat armour. His XM8 carbine was next to him, stripped down for maintenance.

Mara was watching the road they were at the side of. She had dark skin and short black hair. She wore modified combat armour and carried a pump action shotgun.

Emily settled down next to Mark, brushing dirt of her armoured vault suit and smiling at him as she sat down. It was no secret that she was in a relationship with Mark.

She'd come a long way since their first adventures, she was more confident and knew more about the wasteland. She was the youngest one there, as well as the shortest. She was pale, with auburn hair, freckles and blue eyes. She still wore her vault 117 suit, modified with bits of armour and equipment pouches, along with a strap for her scoped laser rifle.

"How's Ghost?" Mark asked.

"He's fine." Emily replied. "Do you still have that computer?"

"I wasn't about to throw it away." Mark handed her the device. It was smaller than most, they had recovered it on the Canadian border, after clearing out a cave inhabited by a nightstalkers.

Emily powered it up and flexed her fingers. It had resisted all of their hacking attempts, but Emily could be stubborn at times and hadn't given up.

"What do you think's on it?" Mark asked.

"Something secret."

"Stating the obvious there, Emily." Jin murmured. "That's why it's encrypted."

"Something _very _secret then." Emily didn't look up from the screen. "Maybe schematics for a weapon or some important pre-war data, whatever it is must be useful."

Emily tuned her radio to a local station, mostly because she liked music, and began to type. Mark let her concentrate and went back to checking their equipment. Ghost had seen Iron Biters patrolling the area they had dubbed "the Wreck", they wanted to salvage stuff from the area, preferably without a fight.

They had seen Iron Biters on the road. They had a few guns, mostly handguns, machine pistols and old rifles and shotguns. They preferred crude melee weapons, resembling clubs, axes and swords, and wore heavy iron armour.

Mark made sure that he had some magazines loaded with armour piercing rounds handy.

"Movement below." Ghost slipped down from the ridge.

"What can you see?" Mara asked.

"Three Iron Biters." Ghost was speaking quietly, even though there was little chance of being overheard. "They're looking for something in the wreckage."

"Us?"

"I don't think so." Ghost answered. "But they look like scouts, lightly armed and armoured, for Iron Biters anyway."

"What do you recommend?"

"If we leave them alone, they won't see us." Ghost said. "But they might leave with valuable salvage."

"They could have a camp nearby." Mara added. "This could get messy." She pumped a round into her shotgun. "But I'm always ready for messy."

"Only start blasting if it _does _get messy." Mark told her. "Ghost and Jin can take them out quietly, we'll keep them covered."

"I'll get into position." Ghost began to stand up.

"Bullets might ricochet," Mark said. "Use a knife. Emily can provide over-watch, just in case you need it."

Ghost handed her the sniper rifle. "Don't damage it." It already appeared to be damaged. Ghost and Jin somehow kept it working.

"I won't." Emily assured him. She had been a decent shot to start with. She had also taken some training from Ghost. She powered down the computer and climbed up the ridge.

"I'll stay in the entrance to the Wreck." Mark said. "Keep it quiet. We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention." He glanced at the ridge. "Emily, use channel fourteen."

Emily held up her radio to show that she had heard. They had acquired some walkie-talkies during their journeys, but they had to be careful with the batteries. Emily could only keep them going for so long and working fission batteries were fairly rare at times.

Mark checked the magazine of his carbine, racking a bullet into the chamber. "Ghost, take point, look for anything we can salvage, preferably electronics and ammunition."

"You got it, Boss." Ghost nodded. He drew his knife and inspected the blade. "Let's go."

* * *

The Iron Biter scouts were picking through the husk of a cargo plane. Emily guessed that somebody had dragged it into the valley after the bombs had fallen. There was no sign of an impact crater.

Not that she could see one. The ground was completely covered by rusted metal wreckage. Now she could see where the Iron Biters got the materials for their armour and melee weapons, they took it from this place, a pile of scrap just waiting for them.

No wonder they used metal armour, there was still plenty of metal to go.

Through the scope of Ghost's sniper rifle, she could see the scouts picking through the wreckage of the cargo plane, stripping away the metal.

Emily zoomed out and panned to the right. She saw Mark, crouched behind a rusted car, in front of the narrow path to the valley.

She panned slightly to the left and saw a fleeting shadow moving through an old bus. Ghost she guessed.

She kept her radio by her mouth, just in case she needed to warn them.

A cloud obscured the moon, cutting off its silvery light. Emily flicked the night-vision on. Ghost's additions made the scope bulky. Nevertheless Emily could see the advantage, literally.

She hummed quietly as she watched the valley, pausing to sip a little water from her canteen.

"Emily, are you humming?" Mark asked quietly. "It's nice, but I can hear it over the radio, so can the others."

"Sorry." Emily winced. "It's stuck in my head."

"Inkspots?"

"I think so." Emily listened to the local radio channel on her pip-boy, for news and music. "Those scouts are still in the cargo plane, still salvaging."

"Got it." Ghost rasped. "Jin, see if you can cut out those wires."

The radios went silent again. Emily shivered in the cold. The camouflaged sheet Ghost had made didn't keep her warm. Unless somebody looked closely, Emily was completely invisible in the dark.

"What was that?" Mark asked.

"I'm just cold." Emily shook her head. "Don't worry." She took a look at the cargo plane. "Hold on…"

* * *

Jin cut the last wire with his pliers. It was a miracle they had survived. Jin was grateful; wires could be used for so many things. Improvised electronics, weapons, traps, lots of things, provided you had the know-how. Jin had plenty of that, so did Emily.

Mara slipped a few scraps of metal into her backpack, Ghost was salvaging the fan blades from an engine, probably for weapons.

Ghost peered through the wreckage and made a sign. Time to move on.

Jin pocketed the wires and gestured at Mara to move on. Mara nodded and crept up to a rusted lorry. She clambered inside and began to strip out anything that looked useless.

Ghost found his way into a fighter's cockpit, rubbed his withered hands together, and began to select bits and pieces.

Jin settled for another car. He pried open the boot and stared in shock.

It looked like somebody had been keeping a secret stash. There were bullets, a couple of micro-fusion cells, two bags filled with bottle caps and other items.

Jin grinned as he stuffed them into his pack. This was brilliant.

"Hold on…" Emily whispered. "Those scouts are on the move. Jin, one of them is heading your way."

Jin glanced up, through the empty window of a car door, and saw one of the Iron Biters creeping through the wrecks. He was trying to avoid being spotted by his comrades.

Jin grimaced. He'd accidentally found the scout's stash, and the scout had decided to either add or take something from the now empty stash.

It was too late to put it all back and pretend nothing had happened. Jin silently closed the boot and crept away, no easy feat in his heavy armour.

"We're blown." He hissed. "We need to leave. Now!"

"Don't panic." Ghost murmured. "I've got him."

The scout had reached his stash and was reaching for the boot.

Ghost slipped out of the shadows, like his namesake, and put a hand over the scout's mouth before putting him in a choke hold.

The scout struggled feebly before crumpling. Ghost opened the boot of the car, put the scout inside, and closed it again.

"Nice work, Ghost." Emily approved.

"Back out." Mark ordered. "It won't take them long to figure out that one of them is missing."

Ghost signalled Mara and began to creep back to Mark with Jin.

One of the scouts began to call out the name of his missing friend.

Mara glanced back. Her foot caught a piece of metal poking out of the ground.

Mara hit the ground. She didn't cry out, the noise was still audible though.

The scout glanced around, trying to find where the noise had come from.

Mara lay still. She could barely see and could taste dirt in her mouth.

"Mara," Emily whispered. "He's moving…"

"Towards me." Mara guessed. "Okay. Keep an eye on him." She began to crawl; knowing that standing up would reveal her position. She reached back and grabbed her shotgun, crawling with it in front of her. It wasn't a subtle weapon, but she felt more confident with it in her hands.

"Mara, he's almost on top of you!" Emily hissed.

Mara twisted round, aiming her shotgun at the scout as he came into view.

The Iron Biter stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. He suddenly fumbled for his gun.

Mara began to squeeze the trigger.

The scout shuddered. Mara saw blood flowing from a hole in his chest.

The scout toppled and hit the ground.

Mara glanced at the ridge. She couldn't see Emily, but she knew who had saved her.

The last scout had figured out that something was wrong. His two friends had vanished, one was unconscious and one was dead.

Mara silently counted to three before turning over and crawling again. The whole point of stealth seemed to have evaded them, again.

_Next time, just let Ghost do all the sneaking_.

She stopped next to a van and slowly clambered to her feet. No bullets headed her way, she moved slowly to the back of the van.

She ended up staring down the barrel of a gun. Mara stared down it, expecting an explosion of sound and light that would mean a bullet to the brain. Or would she even know?

"Mara?" Mark raised the carbine away from her head. "You gave me a jump. It's a good thing I have trigger discipline."

"I really screwed this up." Mara shook her head.

Mark held out his hand. "Come on." He helped her up. "We've got something out of this. Follow me."

"What about the last scout?"

"Ghost will care of him, but the Iron Biters will notice their absence. We're setting up a new camp, come on."

* * *

Emily and Jin had backtracked down the road and had travelled off it to establish a new camp. Ghost, Mark and Mara turned up a few minutes after the other two had laid out tents and bedrolls.

"Late to the party." Jin tossed a bottle in Mara's direction.

She caught it and examined the contents. "Water?"

"We're out in the wilderness." Jin gestured at the wasteland. "No local bars yet."

Mara sighed and slumped down to the ground. "I screwed up, guys. I'm sorry."

"It was just bad luck, Mara." Emily assured her. "We were in trouble as soon as that scout came close to Jin."

"I forgot to thank you for saving my skin."

"We're a team, Mara." Emily smiled. "Besides, you saved me from those mirelurks."

"Anyway, we did get some useful items out of there." Mark said. "Go on, tell her."

"We got some wires and scrap electronics." Jin held up the pieces. "Ghost got some metal, mostly rusted but we can make use of it, I also found that stash. What about you?"

Mara unslung her pack and opened it. "A few bits and pieces. Just metal really."

"Don't beat yourself up." Ghost told her. "If you have any empty shells, Jin and I could rig up some surprises."

"Jin's made a brilliant find." Mark nodded in Jin's direction. "Caps, some ammo, including cells for energy weapons, repair kits. And best of all, a map too."

Jin held up the frayed paper. "I reckon Emily can put this on her pip-boy."

Mara could see why that was so valuable. Ghost was the only one who had been to the Canadian Wasteland. He'd only been on the outskirts though.

Canada was rough territory now, full of strange creatures and raiders. So was much of the world now. Few people travelled into Canada though, or beyond their own wastelands.

Emily took the map and began to add locations to her pip-boy. The map was an old one; the Iron-Biter who had taken it had added locations in pencil and crossed out others.

The added ones were probably new landmarks and settlements, the crossed out areas were ones that had been completely destroyed or ruined.

Mara handed a few empty shells over to Ghost and Jin. Jin eagerly opened them up with his pliers and began to fiddle with them, putting in little slivers of metal.

Mara knew what he was doing; he was making an improvised shrapnel weapon. It was simple: stick in something explosive, put it in the ground and wait for somebody to step on it.

"It looks like the nearest settlement is a place called Edmonton. The marks on the map suggest that it's smaller than it once was." Emily said. "Whoever owned this map also wrote Harley's Stand just below it."

"Might be worth checking out." Mark shrugged.

Mara shared a glance with Jin and Ghost. Nobody had said as much, but they all knew that Mark and Emily were considering settling down somewhere, perhaps to start a family or a peaceful life.

That was why they had come out here, under the pretence of seeking adventure. The Mojave was too chaotic and Caesar's Legion was still trying to take over.

Canada was far away from those troubles.

There was still trouble within the Canadian Wasteland though, and the five of them seemed to either find trouble, or trouble found them.

* * *

_**Why Canada? Don't ask why, just say: "Why not?" I don't need to worry about the New Vegas storyline this way. I'm also using aspects of Black Isle's Fallout 3 plan (called Van Buren on the wiki) in this story. Don't get me wrong, Bethesda is brilliant, but I see potential in the Van Buren storyline.  
And of course; the main point of this sequel is bring back the misfits. Apologies for the long absence, I needed a break.  
For those of you who noticed, Mark has an XM8 assault carbine now. I will explain how he got it in **_**Road to Salvation****_._**


	2. Harley's Stand

The last of the crates of was brought in by a Minotaur. Few vehicles had been left intact after the nukes had fallen and few people knew had to repair and maintain any that had survived.

The Minotaur was a mix of an FEV mutant and a chassis with four wheels. They could be used to carry cargo, or could become a sort of walking tank.

The creatures themselves were just a grotesque as other FEV mutants, with thick yellowy-green skin and two arms as thick as tree trunks, ending in hooves. They had no necks; their flat faces were embedded between their shoulders. They had no legs, not even at birth, the chassis was attached instead.

The soldiers escorted it in, clad in their bronze Cyclopes class power armour.

The heavy steel doors opened. Beyond was a storage area, large enough to contain hundreds of the large metal crates they had been gathering.

This would be one of the last, only one more stash needed to be found.

The Minotaur groaned and hauled the crate into the room. A pair of super mutants stomped to the Minotaur and lifted the crate off its wheeled chassis. They carried it over to an empty slot painted on the ground and put it down.

The super mutants had been captured and brought to the base as slave labourers. Their strength was useful. They were kept in line by explosive collars around their necks.

Only the ones bred in the sanctuary, like the Minotaurs and the Usurpers, were completely loyal to the cause. That was only because they had limited minds and were brainwashed. The Minotaurs were just simple brutes. The Usurpers had enough brainpower to use guns and weapons.

The Minotaur groaned as it stomped and screeched out of the room. The doors slid shut and sealed behind it.

The enslaved mutants were left inside. They couldn't damage the crates, nor would the crates harm them.

The Minotaur returned to its berth and entered a hibernation state.

The two soldiers took the freight lift up to the command centre. In truth, it had not been made as a command centre originally; it had been adapted for their needs.

The whole place had actually been a hotel, albeit a large and unusual one, taken over by the Chosen and their leader and made into a secure fortress, housing hangers, barracks, weapons, turrets and labs. Everything was high tech enough to make the Enclave salivate and the Brotherhood jealous.

The two soldiers reported to a commander, recognisable due to his gold trimmed Cyclopes armour.

"Crate 145 has been stored." One of the soldiers declared.

"Excellent." The commander nodded. "Report to hanger five, you are to re-enter the field ASAP."

"We've found more, sir?"

"Possibly," the commander answered. "We've got a vertibird ready to go. Same procedure, leave no witnesses."

* * *

It was a cold day again. Rain drizzled from the miserable sky overhead. The landscape around here was mostly green and brown, except for the ruins and the settlement ahead.

"There it is." Ghost could see it through the scope of his sniper rifle.

Mark lowered his binoculars. "Looks abandoned."

"Not quite." Ghost pointed at something in the centre of the ruins. "Look closely at the middle."

Mark adjusted the zoom and saw what Ghost was looking at now. "Now I see," he murmured. "That's clever."

"They've arranged the wreckage to make it look like… well, wreckage." Emily assessed, peering at the ruins through the scope of her laser rifle.

"Unless you look as closely as we are, it just looks like a ruined wall or fallen building." Ghost agreed. "If you look beyond that, you can just about see a concrete wall. It might have been part of a proper wall or military barrier, I can't tell from here."

"That's a first, Ghost." Jin remarked. "You always seem to know everything."

"Only an idiot thinks he knows everything." Ghost muttered. "I can see smoke. Might be a cook fire, but judging by the space between the walls, both improvised and proper, they have enough room for a small community, a few buildings and perhaps a barracks or armoury."

"Any sign of guards?" Mara inquired.

"Not that I can see." Ghost murmured. "Emily?"

"Perhaps they're in the buildings?" Emily suggested. "With all the toppled houses and tower blocks, they could be in a dozen places."

"What do you think we should do?" Mark asked.

Ghost glanced around. "I could move to that position, get a better view." He suggested. "Or I could watch from here and you could move up and check the place out. Radio me if things get deadly."

Mark pulled back the charging handle of his carbine, checking the chamber for a loaded bullet. "Okay, I'll take Emily with me."

"Mark, I…" Mara paused in midsentence. "I'm sorry I messed up, but…"

"I'm not leaving you here because of that." Mark told her. "We need you on the main road in case something goes wrong. Ghost can cover us from a distance, you can watch our backs."

Mara considered, idly tapping the stock of her shotgun. "Okay. Fair enough."

"It makes sense." Ghost said. "Five armed people walking up to a settlement might cause a panic, and you two look fairly harmless compared to the rest of us."

"What about me?" Jin asked.

"We've still got those bits from the wreck." Emily shrugged. "Do what you do best."

"And miss the action?"

"You won't get shot at." Mark said.

"Fair enough." Jin shrugged. "I'll see what I can do."

Mark and Emily climbed down to the main road, what was left of it, and began to walk down it. Mara followed them down and took cover behind an old car.

As they walked down the road, between the crumbling towers and houses, Mark and Emily tried to look less dangerous. Emily was better at that; she still had an innocent look about her.

"Looks cosy." Jin remarked over the radio.

"Quiet, Jin." Ghost muttered. "Don't drain the batteries."

Emily reached out and clasped Mark's hand. He knew that she was helping to keep up the innocent pretence. He still liked the contact though. They'd had little time alone since they had travelled across the Mojave and up to Canada.

Still, he was happy to be back in the company of his friends.

His thoughts were broken by the shot.

It sounded like a rifle or maybe a shotgun. A warning shot, fired into the sky.

"Stay where you are," a woman called. "Don't move or I'll…"

"We understand." Mark shouted back. "We're not here to fight." He unslung his carbine, held it up, and then placed it gently on the ground. His pistol and sawn-off joined it, along with Emily's laser rifle and handgun.

"See?" Mark called. "We're unarmed now."

"Be careful, guys." Mara whispered over the radio.

Two men in battered leather armour approached them. One was armed with a double barrelled shotgun and the other had a small handgun.

A third man with his pistol in his holster gathered up the weapons on the ground and carried them away. The two armed men gestured at Mark and Emily to follow them into the settlement.

A large rock, used as a kind of door, was attached to a mechanical system with cogs and chains. Somebody operated the winch to pull it back.

The man carrying the weapons went in first. The two guards sent Mark and Emily in at gunpoint.

Inside the settlement, Mark could see that Ghost's guesses had been correct. There were a few buildings made out of metal sheets, girders and rubble. The largest building appeared to be a sort of town hall and the one next to it seemed to be an armoury or barracks.

The woman who had fired the warning shot jumped down from the improvised rubble wall and glared at Mark and Emily. She had a stern face, dirty blonde hair and an old army rifle.

"Odd pair." She murmured. "Couple?"

"Sort of." Mark answered simply. "Can we talk about this? We're not hostile."

"Yeah right," one of the guards jabbed Emily in the back with his shotgun. "I bet they're Iron Biters in disguise, trying to take more money from us."

"Iron Biters aren't subtle." The man carrying their weapons said. "And these aren't the kind of weapons they'd use; Iron Biters never use energy weapons."

"Perhaps we should introduce ourselves," Mark suggested. "I'm Mark Kelson and this is Emily."

"Emily what?" The woman asked suspiciously.

"Kelson." Emily stated. "We're married."

"Oi!" The shotgun guard grabbed Emily's radio and wrenched it away. "What's this? Have your Iron Biter friends been listening in?"

"Hardly," Ghost rasped. "We're not Iron Biters."

"Well come out or we'll kill your friends!"

"Daryl," the woman glared at him. "We're not murderers, stand down."

"Mark?" Ghost asked.

"Their house, their rules, Ghost." Mark stated. "Play nicely."

"Okay." Ghost relented. "We're coming out."

One of the sentries called out when he saw Ghost, Mara and Jin approaching the settlement.

Three guards went out. One of them entered first, struggling to carry all of the weapons, and the others were taken in by the guards.

"Nice welcoming party." Jin remarked.

"Identify yourselves." The guard called Daryl demanded.

"The mouthy one is Jin Irving," Ghost gestured at the man.

"This lovely woman is Mara," Jin said, "Mara Lanning."

"And I'm Ghost." The ghoul finished the introductions. "I guess you already know Mark and Emily."

"Yeah, whatever," Daryl raised his eyebrows and his gun. "Now give me your full name."

Ghost shrugged. "I'm just Ghost."

"Stow it, Daryl." The blonde woman pushed his shotgun so that the barrel pointed at the ground. "Are you mercenaries?"

"Sort of." Mark said. "We're wanderers, freelancers, whatever you want to call us."

"_Misfits _seems more appropriate." The woman shrugged. She slung her rifle across her back and extended her hand. "Maybe we have got off to bad start. I'm Sharee, I'm in charge of defending this place."

Mark shook her hand. "A pleasure."

"You're looking at what's left of a place called Edmonton." Sharee gestured at the ruins around them. "This settlement is called Harley's Stand."

"Can we have our stuff back now?" Jin inquired. "We know that Iron Biters are in this area. What did you call it, Emily?"

"Alberta." Emily answered. "It's the name of this region."

"I still don't trust 'em." Daryl muttered darkly.

"Relax, Daryl." Sharee sighed. "They're not Iron Biters, aside from their dress and weapons, Iron Biters shoot all ghouls on sight."

"How nice." Ghost muttered.

"Why do you fear them?" Mara asked. "You've got guns and this place is well fortified, why not fight them off?"

Sharee frowned. "I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. Come with me, you need to talk to the Mayor."

Sharee led them into the ramshackle town hall. The metal walls were adorned with old ragged flags, Canadian and American ones, and various pre-war items including an empty maple syrup bottle.

"Somebody likes their heritage." Jin commented. "Any chance of a snack?"

"After you see the Mayor." Sharee stated. "And keep your jokes to yourself, Mayor Waverly takes this sort of thing seriously."

"Jin certainly doesn't." Ghost said. "You heard her, keep it down."

Jin kept his mouth shut, at least until they reached the Mayor's office. The office was just like the rest of the building, mostly bits of wood and metal hammered together.

There was an improvised desk, a cabinet and a few chairs. Mark also noticed a gun rack containing old weapons, old hunting rifles and even a musket. Most of them were aged beyond use, along with their ammunition.

A man was seated behind the desk. For a Mayor, he was thinner than Mark had expected. He was in his late thirties, with hair going grey and a solemn expression.

"I thought I heard the sentries start an alert." He murmured. "Sharee, who are these visitors?"

"They're not locals," Sharee said. "They're not Iron Biters either, just travellers."

"I'm Mark," Mark decided to provide the introductions. "This is my wife, Emily, that's Ghost, Mara and Jin. As Sharee said, we're travellers."

"I am Mayor Waverly, current leader of Harley's Stand." He stood up and extended his hand, shaking each one and only hesitating when he came to Ghost's. "Normally we'd be more welcoming, but you've picked a… difficult time to visit."

"Your guards thought that we were Iron Biters." Mara said. "Does that have anything to do with it?"

Waverly sighed. "We're a small community, we have little protection. We only have enough weapons and ammunition to deal with creatures and the odd raider. But the Iron Biters outnumber and outgun us, they're organised and ruthless."

"You're afraid of them." Emily realised.

"We tried to fight back, but…" Sharee paused, lowering her head. "I lost my brother and my father to those brutes. So many others died, there used to be about fifty of us, now there are thirty two."

"We pay them a tribute. As long as we manage they leave us alone." Waverly explained. "If we don't… they take somebody. We don't know what happens to them."

"Who do they target?" Ghost inquired.

Sharee sighed. "Usually young people. Sometimes children."

"They're raising them to become Iron Biters." Mara guessed. "I've seen tribes that do something similar."

"Caesar's Legion has been known to do the same." Mark added. "How do you pay this tribute?"

"It's whatever we can get off the merchant caravans." Waverly told them. "Guns, metal, caps, meds, chems, anything they want. They take about five hundred caps worth, every two months."

"None of those things are cheap." Jin stated. "They're bleeding you dry."

"What choice do we have?" Waverly shrugged. "They could wipe us out if they felt like it."

"They'll do it once you fail to cough up the tribute," Ghost said, "when you can't keep this community going because you're out of money."

"There's nothing else we can do." Sharee sided with the Mayor. "We can't fight them off; we barely have enough firepower to keep the wasteland animals away. We're not soldiers."

"You didn't have the firepower." Mark murmured. "Until now."

The Mayor glanced at Sharee, sharing a worried expression.

"No." He declined flatly. "Even if you somehow managed to kill their tribute gathering party, they still have an army and a fortified base at Iron Point."

"Iron Point?" Emily glanced at her pip-boy and pressed a few switches. "That's north of here, right?"

"It's where they camp. They mark it with an iron spike." Sharee explained. "It's well defended and allows them to watch the trade routes."

"If you killed their gatherers, you'd start a war." Waverly continued. "One that we would lose. Badly."

Emily shifted nervously on her feet and glanced at Ghost.

"It's too late for that." Ghost grumbled. "We knocked out two, killed one, in the Wreck last night."

Waverly stared at them in shock. "You did what?"

Sharee unslung her rifle and pointed it at Mark. "You need to leave, _now_, before you get us all killed."

The radio on Waverly's desk crackled. One of the sentries was trying to contact him.

"Mayor, Iron Biters are here."

The Mayor shot a despairing look at Mark. "Sharee, get out there. I want the five of you to stay out sight, or I'll hand you over to the Biters. Got that?"

Mara glared at the Mayor. "So that's it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You just hand people and resources over to stay safe." Mara continued to glare at him. "Have you ever thought about what this doing to your town, to your people? A leader must protect their people."

"That is what I am doing!"

"No, you're _submitting_." Mara argued. She was damn near impossible to persuade when she became stubborn like this. "These Iron Biters are draining your people, of supplies, of will, of hope. And they won't stop, not until you can't pay that tribute any longer, and then they'll just kill you all."

"Stop it!" Sharee shouted.

"Mara is right." Mark ignored the rifle barrel next to his ear. "We can help you deal with these raiders; we've faced more than our fair share coming here."

"And where are you from?" Sharee growled.

"We've come from the Mojave, though only three of us were born there."

Mark had been born on the border of California, Ghost considered the place where he become a ghoul as his birthplace, Mara and Emily had come from the edges of the Mojave and Jin had come from Freeside, in New Vegas.

"And we can handle ourselves in a fight." Jin added.

"We're not fighting them and that's the end of it." Waverly snapped. "Sharee, see to the Biters."

* * *

Sharee met the Iron Biters outside the northern exit, the intact wall, with some of the guards.

The Iron Biters had brought along six raiders and their leader, which didn't bode well for Harley's Stand.

Their leader was a woman, but she was about as feminine as a tank. She was wearing heavy spiked metal armour and there was a crudely made blade slung across her back, along with a large calibre pistol holstered at her waist.

Ghost watched them carefully from the wall, just out of sight.

"Well, well, well," the Iron Biter leader sneered. "Sharee. You're still alive. Do you still have that scar?"

"You never come for the tribute yourself, Ironhide." Sharee stated, ignoring the jibe. "What's the problem?"

"The Wreck is our territory, Sharee." Ironhide growled. "So when I find two men unconscious and one dead, who do I blame?"

"Raiders?"

"We _rule _Albterta." Ironhide gestured at the area around them. "That means that we rule you."

"We didn't hurt your men." Sharee argued. "We want no trouble."

"Well you've got some." Ironhide snarled. "But I will give you a fair deal. Give us whoever caused the trouble in the Wreck and we won't flatten your miserable dump of a town." Ironhide smiled. "You have five seconds."

Sharee glanced at one of the guards. They understood the gravity of their situation.

They had no control over Mark and his friends. They could leave Harley's Stand to burn.

Not that they would.

The gates opened.

Mark and his team stepped outside, weapons in their hands.

Ironhide glared at them. "Get out of my way, Sharee."

Sharee glowered at Ironhide, but stepped aside without protest. Ironhide and her men stepped up to Mark, trying to look intimidating. None of them were frightened.

"And who are you?" Ironhide snarled. "You're not from Harley's Stand. I doubt you're from Canada either."

"My name is Mark Kelson." Mark stated. "And I lead this group."

"And you killed one of my men?" Ironhide looked doubtful. "Knocked out the other two?"

"I killed your man." Emily admitted.

"I took care of the others." Ghost added.

Ironhide examined each of them in turn. "You look like a soldier. Always standing at attention. NCR?" She got no response. She turned to the others. "A vault dweller. A… freak."

"Charming." Ghost murmured.

"You're no raider." She ignored Ghost and assessed Jin. "But you have good taste. You'd do well in the Iron Biters."

"I'm not exactly available." Jin clenched his fist, his power first whirred. "And I wouldn't work for scum like you."

"And you," Ironhide glanced at Mara. "You have a look about you, a tribal? I've seen one or two. You're a survivor, aren't you?"

Mara met Ironhide's stare with a defiant glare.

"Maybe you did overcome my men at the Wreck." Ironhide accepted. "But you can't beat all of my soldiers."

"Soldiers?" Ghost scoffed. "This rabble?"

"And what are you?" Ironhide challenged. "A bunch of… misfits?"

"Maybe that's what we are." Mark said. "We may be misfits, but we're here and we won't submit. You can try to steal from these people, you can try to kill them, but we are here now. This place is _defended_."

Ironhide sneered at him. "We'll see about that." She made a sign and her men followed her away down the road.

Sharee stormed up to Mark and shoved him. Emily's pistol was aimed at her in a heartbeat.

"Do you know what you've done?" Sharee shouted. "You've started a war!"

"Maybe." Mark gestured at Emily to lower her gun. "But we will defend you."

"And how can _five _people save us from an army?"

"Wait and see." Jin smirked.

"You might not be able to see it, but this place is perfect for a stand." Ghost told her. "Is that how it earned its name?"

Sharee closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. "A man called Harley started this place and yes, he did make a stand here." She opened her eyes and gave Mark a challenging stare. "But he died."

"Then we ought to honour his memory," Mark hefted his carbine. "By making a stand here. I think it's time for us to earn a name here too."


	3. The defence of Harley's Stand

_**I've noticed, from reviews and such, that my writing style on Fanfiction has actually been appalling. I know I can do better. So, for the readers who actually **_**liked **_**(surprisingly) my work, Forever-calibrating, Kogouma, MB18932, Pintsized psycho, Frankus and Ray-kun among them, I will make **_**Annihilation **_**a story to be proud of.**_

* * *

Coleman always felt a sense of dread when he came here. It was implacable, something he just couldn't place, a swirling feeling in his stomach that told him to run and hide.

But he was one of the Chosen, the General of their armies, he would not run.

Coleman was one of the founders of the Chosen, his past still bothered him but it didn't matter either. That life was over, he had a new purpose.

He was a stern looking man in his early forties, with a hard face. He was bald, he found hair bothersome in power armour, pale and blue eyed. Coleman had a commanding presence; he was also tall and intimidating. He was no thug like some of the deserters who had become Chosen alongside him, he was cold and calculating, a tactician.

And now he was afraid, the cold feeling was still there and telling him to flee.

Coleman raised a hand covered by a thick metal gauntlet and rapped on the door. Metal met metal and created a resounding _clang _that echoed in the corridor.

"Enter." The single word was crisp and flat.

Coleman opened the door and stepped inside. The lab needed no decontamination system; Coleman had already gone through two. His Cyclopes armour was sealed against the outside world, although he had taken his helmet off, it had been designed specifically to keep them safe.

Not from mutants, from contamination.

The lab itself was clean, to the point of shining; even the chemicals in their sealed tubes and flasks had an unnatural shine. This was no amateur's lab though.

It was large; it was about twenty feet across and twenty feet wide. In the area Coleman had stepped in were high-tech banks containing chemicals of varying hues. They were not medicinal though, Coleman did not dare to ask what they were, and he knew enough about the plan to guess their purposes.

The second part of the lab was up a short flight of stairs, mostly occupied by computers and strange high-tech devices that Coleman had no name for.

Once again, he had not dared to ask.

His boss actually frightened him, even though he didn't fight with a gun and he didn't use power armour, Coleman didn't fear him because of his martial prowess. He feared the man's intellect. He was a genius, and not a benevolent one, his skills were with bioweapons, technological terrors and ways to kill without firing a single shot.

Despite all that, he still needed men like Coleman. He still needed people to shoot other people.

"Professor?" Coleman called as the lab assistant hovered past. It was a robot, a variant of the Mr Handy series, sleek white metal and six limbs, rather than three, equipped with syringes, pincers and scientific equipment.

"General," the voice was soft, but Coleman could detect a faint undercurrent of irritation. "I trust you have a good reason for interrupting my work."

The man himself stepped into view, carrying a test tube filled with a bright blue liquid.

He was not physically impressive compared to Coleman. He was thin, almost spindly, and much older than Coleman. His sharp, bony face was wrinkled and he was balding, only a few wisps of white hair remained.

But his eyes were cold and contained a cunning, ruthless energy in their inky depths.

His white coat, despite the dangers of his work, was unstained and pristine. He did not fear the chemicals around him, a few of his many weapons.

"Yes, Professor," Coleman nodded. "We have secured sixty-five per cent of Hydra."

Professor Huxley regarded him coldly, his face implacable. "You are on schedule, as is Project Ouroboros. Why are you telling me something that I already know?"

_What don't you know? _Coleman kept the question to himself, instead he said: "The rest of Hydra is kept in the Bulwark."

"You have led missions into Winnipeg before," Huxley recalled, "and beyond, into Alberta and even into the Black Fields. Why does the Bulwark present a problem?"

"It belongs to the Brotherhood."

Huxley allowed his disappointment to show. "And now you disappoint me." He stated. "The Brotherhood is weak and you have fought them many times."

"The Bulwark is where they are strongest, it is their main base." Coleman explained. "It is heavily defended and they have succeeded in bringing the tesla towers online."

That gave Huxley something to think about. Not that he needed to spend time thinking. It only took him a few seconds to come up with a solution.

The man was a genius, a deadly one.

"I will see to a solution." He stated. "Leave me to my work, General."

Coleman nodded curtly and walked away. Huxley merely turned aside and examined the contents of the test tube he was holding.

He smiled, but with no warmth.

Coleman felt relieved as he left the lab. Sometimes he wondered why he had decided to work for Huxley.

The reason always found him though, the future of the world, a new world.

* * *

"You are all… fools!" Waverly was still shaking in fear and rage.

"We've never been called that before." Jin remarked.

"And we're not fools." Ghost folded his arms. "We even have a tactical advantage, even if none of you can see it."

"And how do you know that?" Waverly demanded. "You're no soldier."

"You could say that I was." Ghost left it at that. "Mark and I are in agreement. The founder of this settlement knew what he was doing."

"He's right." Mara agreed. "All you need is the know-how, training and firearms."

"Which we lack." Sharee muttered.

"It's a good thing we're here then." Mark stated. "Waverly, you don't have to approve. But we can deal with the Iron Biters, we've faced worse enemies."

"Name them." Sharee challenged.

"Caesar's Legion," Ghost recalled. "Raiders, Fiends, Deathclaws, Jackals. We've even fought against the Enclave."

Sharee read his face, trying not to feel repulsed by the withered flesh and the corpse like looks. "You're not kidding, are you?"

"If we were, we would have run away by now."

"I can't allow this to happen." Waverly groaned. "You'll get us all killed."

"Maybe it's better than giving up our stuff to the Iron Biters." Sharee said. "Maybe it's time for payback."

"Sharee, you can't…"

"I can. Now is our best chance to be free, that's what we should stand for. Besides, I still have family to avenge." Sharee interrupted. "I'm in. I'll see if any of the guards want to help." She walked off to find them. Waverly shook his head and left, muttering the whole time.

The five of them, left standing there, were silent for a few moments. Emily shifted nervously on her feet.

"Well," Jin shrugged. "No time like the present, how should we play this?"

Mark was already forming plans. "Jin, go out with Mara and lay some traps." He instructed. "Ghost, find a place to snipe from."

"Easy enough." Ghost nodded. He glanced around at the ruined towers and pointed at one. "I'll start there."

"What about me?" Emily asked.

Her question went unanswered as Sharee returned with six guards and two civilians. Sharee's face was blank, but Emily could see that she was hiding something.

"These guys want to help," Sharee gestured at them. The guards had a double barrelled shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle like Sharee's, two hunting rifles and an old sub-machinegun between them. The two civilians only had 9mm army handguns and no armour, unlike the guards who wore battered leather armour.

"And the bad news?" Emily prompted.

Sharee sighed. "Something's wrong with Jol." She admitted. "He won't leave the sickbed, and as you can see we're not exactly packing firepower."

"Do you have any other weapons?" Mark asked.

"Just an old shotgun and an assault rifle, and they're both broken."

"Jin could fix them." Emily declared. "Did you say that something was wrong with one of your men?"

"I'm no doctor, and ours was eaten by a dragon yesterday."

"A what?"

"A big lizard," Sharee answered briefly. "You'll know one when you see it. Can any of you help Jol?"

"I have some medical training." Emily said. "I can see what's wrong."

"Follow me then," Sharee gestured at Emily to follow before leading her to the makeshift infirmary. It was hardly as advanced or clean as the facilities Emily had seen in vault 117, but her time in the wastelands taught her that such places were hard to find and even harder to build.

Jol was lying on a makeshift bed with an iron frame, sweating and still. Emily sat down next to him and tried to assess the man's symptoms.

He was covered in a cold sweat, but was hot to the touch as if he had a fever, and was barely awake.

"We give him med-x." Sharee explained. "He can't sleep without it."

"How many doses?" Emily asked.

"He's had… about four." Sharee remembered. "One every day."

"Don't give him any more." Emily told her. "You don't want him to become addicted." She glanced at Jol's body. He was only wearing a grubby vest and boxers, but this was no time for modesty.

There were no wounds on his body, except for a swollen red mark on the inside of his knee.

"Sharee," Emily called her over. "This reminds me of a radscorpion sting, but the symptoms are different."

"Radscorpion?" Sharee frowned.

Emily realised that they didn't live up here. "He's been stung by something." She explained. "Is there anything in this wasteland that uses poisons?"

Sharee didn't answer for a moment as she racked her brains. "Hunters."

"What are they?"

"Giant wasps." Sharee stated. "Normally they'd die in the wasteland, it gets pretty damn cold up here, but these ones are different."

Emily recalled the cazadors native to the Mojave Wasteland for a moment. Those things scared her, they were fast, laden with venom and travelled in swarms.

Ghost said that cazadors had been genetically engineered, she didn't know if that was true but she was prepared to believe him, and she wondered if these hunters had similar origins.

Evolution in the radioactive wastes had made nature dangerous, why did people have to make it even more lethal?

"Can you help him?" Sharee's question brought Emily back to reality.

Emily brushed a loose strand of auburn hair away from her face. "Maybe." She rummaged around in her medical bag and procured a small green bottle with "A" written on the lab. "This antidote works on cazador stings, and they're mutated wasps." Emily sighed. "Well, it's worth a try anyway." She administered the antidote gently. "It looks like he's allergic to wasp stings, or at least the stings these hunters use."

"Will he be ready to fight tonight?"

Emily shook her head. "I'm afraid not." She stood up, putting the empty bottle into one of her pouches. She could always use it later, Emily didn't believe in throwing away something could be useful later. Any wise wastelander shared that belief. "Keep an eye on him. If the swelling goes down, then the antidote is working."

"And if it doesn't?"

Emily hesitated. She didn't want to say it, but she didn't want to lie either. "Well… I could… amputate the leg. If that doesn't work then…"

Sharee nodded before she had to say any more. "I understand. Thanks for being honest."

Emily gave her a reassuring smile before stepping outside. Her head was filled with more worries. She'd heard of two creatures that sounded deadly and had no idea if her treatment would even save Jol's life.

* * *

Jin and Mara returned half an hour later, they had laid improvised traps and mines along the main road. They had tried to hide the traps, if the enemy attacked at nightfall they would be as good as invisible.

Ghost had found a number of spots to snipe from, a sniper ideally moved after each shot, and he would also be invisible at night thanks to his silenced rifle.

Mark and Emily were giving a few last minutes lessons to the militia, teaching them how to make the most of their weapons. They didn't allow them to practice with live rounds; they needed to conserve the bullets.

"Harley's Road is now Death-trap Road." Jin announced cheerfully. "I feel sorry for any raiders who charge down it."

"_Try_, you mean." Mara corrected. "They'd be lucky to reach the wall."

"You'll have to disarm them after the raid." Mark reminded them. "Remember where they are."

"Of course." Jin nodded. "Anything else we can do?"

"Some guns need fixing." Mark gestured at the armoury with his thumb.

Jin patted his toolkit. "I'm on it."

Jin sauntered off to fix the guns. Mark turned to watch Emily show the less experienced members of the militia how to aim down their sights. Even though she preferred to use energy weapons, she understood the basics of ballistic firearms.

Mark also knew that when it came to the fight itself, he and his friends would be pulling the most weight. They had better guns, more ammo and more experience.

Sharee surprised Emily with a pat on the shoulder. "You did it," she smiled. "He's starting to recover. I don't know what you put in that antidote, but it's done the trick."

Emily shrugged. "It was nothing."

"You're too modest, Emily." Sharee told her. "You've saved his life."

Mark gave Emily an encouraging smile. Hopefully they would save more lives tonight.

As their efforts continued, Mark began to coordinate a plan with Sharee. He was paranoid about the Iron Biters attacking at any moment.

Darkness was beginning to fall. They surely wouldn't wait until morning.

Ghost kept watch, silently scanning the darkening horizon.

"Is there anywhere for the civilians to go?" Mark asked. "The Iron Biters might use explosives."

"It's not their style," Sharee said. "But I see your point. There was a tunnel network under this city. Most of it has collapsed, but we use the part under this place for storage. We could hide people down there."

"It'll have to do." Mark nodded. "We haven't got much time."

"I'll get started," Sharee turned and waved one the militia over. "Daryl, start getting people into the stores. Keep them calm, but move fast."

Daryl started to send people down the manhole. The tension was mounting as the moon rose and the sky turned an inky black, the stars blocked by dark clouds.

Sharee glanced around, at the guards preparing for battle. "We might be able to win this."

"Of course we can." Jin stated. "This will be fun compared to fighting the Enclave."

Sharee still doubted that story. She didn't attempt to argue though.

"Any questions?" Mark asked. Nobody spoke. "Okay. Ghost will radio us as soon as trouble arrives. We'll give them one chance to surrender."

"So that we can keep the moral high ground." Jin added unhelpfully.

"Which they will probably decline." Mark continued. "Then we hold them off. Our main target is their leader, Ironhide or whatever her name is, or whoever is leading them."

"Ironhide Jane." Emily told him. "Jol told me about her. She came from a place called Beauty Coast, the locals threw her out and she came over here and took over the Iron Biters by killing their leader."

"Somebody swallowed a history lesson." Jin quipped. "You have a good memory."

"So does my pip-boy." Emily said. "I record information, just in case we need it."

"Beauty Coast?" The name had piqued Mark's curiosity, it sounded like a settlement.

"It's a place in the state next to this one, Regina." Emily showed him her pip-boy's screen. "That's its rough position. According to one of the guards here, the people in charge of Beauty Coast are very fussy about looks."

"You should fit in just fine then," Mark teased. Emily blushed; she was still shy and modest.

"Well, that explains why Ironhide Jane is out here now," Jin surmised. "She's not exactly… attractive. I mean, I like a girl with guts, but she just wants to spills everybody else's."

The last of the non-combatants had climbed down the manhole when the radio crackled.

"Mark," it was Ghost's raspy voice. "They're coming."

Mark took his word for it. "Everyone," he called. "Get to your positions!"

The militia climbed onto the wall. Mark took position on the right side, Emily took the left. Mara was in the centre, defending the gate.

Jin was acting as a grenadier, unless any Iron Biters climbed onto the wall or breached the gate, and then he'd send them back over.

Mark knew that the concrete wall would give them protection against bullets. He was more concerned about grenades and energy weapons.

According the locals and Ghost, the Iron Biters didn't use energy weapons. However, they had a few grenade launchers and at least one minigun.

He rested the barrel of his carbine on the wall and kept his eyes peeled. The anticipation often felt worse than the actual battle.

The militia was nervous; many of them had never fought in a gunfight before.

Mark peered into the darkness. Ghost had better eyesight and a night vision scope, Mark only had his eyes and iron sights.

He saw the flashlights and torches appear. Some of them were just bits of wood with rags soaked in fuel or oil and set alight. It reminded Mark of Caesar's Legion. He hoped that the Iron Biters were not as fearsome as them.

"Steady," Mark cautioned the militia. "We're out of range. Wait for my order." He gestured at Emily on the west side of the wall.

Emily nodded and turned on her pip-boy. There were no megaphones in Harley's Stand, so Mark had made a recording on Emily's pip-boy. She set it to play at maximum volume, an addition she had made to the device.

"Iron Biters, this is your final chance to surrender and leave in peace." Mark's voice rang out across the road. "If you continue to advance, we will fire upon you."

The Iron Biters paused for a moment, glancing at one another, and decided to attack anyway.

They began to charge.

The first line blundered straight into Jin's traps. The improvised traps made from shotgun shells shredded their legs, spraying blood and bone fragments across the road.

Some of the Biters faltered, seeing the bloody chaos ahead. Most of them continued to charge, straight into the mines Jin and Mara had planted.

There was screaming. The mines tore through the cracked tarmac road and did much worse to the unfortunate Iron Biters. Blood was all over the road.

"In range." Ghost stated. "Firing."

"Open fire!" Mark bellowed.

The gunfire began at once, tracers lit up the night, illuminating the bloody chaos with lethal light. Mark opened fire on some Biters and they writhed in flashing light, dancing a macabre dance as they fell. Ghost's rounds silently found his targets; the ghoul never missed a single shot. Flashes of searing red light from Emily's rifle burned through armour, melting the metal and the flesh underneath. A grenade exploded in bright light and whirling shrapnel, cutting men apart.

Mark's carbine rattled as he fired careful bursts, conserving his ammo. The carbine was inaccurate at long ranges, unless fired carefully, but the Iron Biters were clustered together.

If they'd had a machinegun or a minigun, they could have cut them down in moments.

Sharee reloaded her rifle and jumped up to fire again. Mara's shotgun boomed and tore an Iron Biter apart.

Jin lobbed a grenade as the Biters came closer, putting a hole in their ranks. Mara's shotgun boomed as she opened fire.

One of the militia yelled and fell from the wall, blood flowing from his stomach.

There was no time to help. The Biters were close to the wall, too close.

Another grenade exploded, tearing apart a small group of Biters. Mark crouched down, reloaded, and then jumped up again to resume firing.

Sharee hissed in pain. A bullet had creased her shoulder, blood was running down her arm, but the it was only a flesh wound. At least she was determined; she remained standing and continued to fire.

A second guard fell, a crude axe in his chest and a bullet in his head.

"They're coming over!" One of the guards yelled.

Jin dropped his borrowed rifle as he saw the first Biter clamber over the wall. They were using grappling hooks, made of scrap, to ascend the wall.

Jin smashed his power fist into the man's head and sent him back down the wall with a crushed skull. Another climber was blasted by Mara.

"Fall back!" The Iron Biters were crying. "Fall back! Run!"

The raiders turned and ran as one, so desperate that some of them trampled their comrades underfoot. Some of them ran into the remaining traps.

"Hold your fire," Mark called. "Don't waste your bullets." He waited until the Biters were well out of sight. "Sharee, keep watchers up here. Emily, tend to the wounded."

Sharee was breathing heavily. It occurred to Mark that she had killed before, but had never fought in a battle like this.

"We made it." She breathed. "We actually made it!"

"It's not over yet." Mark told her. He jumped down from the wall.

Emily was tending to the wounded guard, the other one was dead. "We lost two of them." She didn't look up from the wound. Her hands were bloody, Mark had seen her treat wounds before but blood still looked out of place on her small and delicate hands. "Can you give me a hand?"

Mark knelt down next to the wounded man. His eyes were vacant and his breathing was shallow. There was an empty syringe next to his arm; Emily had given him some med-x to dull the pain.

"I need to remove the bullet." Emily explained. "Hold the wound open."

Mark did as he was told. Emily carefully extracted the bullet, not even disturbed by the blood welling up around her fingers. She put the squashed bullet aside quickly. "Okay, I need to close the wound now." She reached for her medical kit and produced a needle and stiches. Mark watched admiringly as she expertly sewed up the wound.

"Thanks for your help." Emily let out a relived breath.

"I'll help you move him." Mara volunteered.

"All right." Emily nodded. "Do it carefully, we don't want to break his stiches."

Mark left them to it. Aside from the two dead guards and wounded one Emily had helped, they had only sustained a few flesh wounds.

Ghost waited for a few minutes before declaring the all clear. The non-combatants came out, looking wary. A few of them were afraid that they would be met by Iron Biters and hauled off as slaves.

"The Iron Biters?" Waverly quavered as he emerged unceremoniously from the manhole.

"They're running back to Iron Point." Sharee helped him out. "They saved us. These… misfits saved us all."

"I think we should use that as a name." Jin remarked. "I got nine of them, by the way."

Mark hadn't bothered to count. Knowing his weapon of choice, he'd probably wounded more than he had killed, the carbine was better at close range.

"Six." Mara muttered reluctantly. "Hold on, when did we start having competitions?"

"Just now." Jin grinned. "And I won." Mark could see that he was just as nervous and fuelled by adrenaline as the rest of them. Only a fool felt no fear.

"Fourteen." Ghost seemed to appear from nowhere. "Do I win anything?"

"Erm…" Jin almost scratched his head before he remembered that he still had his power fist attached to his hand. "How about a beer?"

Ghost shrugged. "Fine by me."

Emily emerged from the makeshift infirmary, wiping blood off her hands. "He'll live." She declared once again. "It's a shame I couldn't save the others."

"There was nothing anybody could have done for them." Mark assured her, giving her hand a squeeze. "Be proud, you saved that man's life."

Mayor Waverly stepped up to the five of them, wringing his hands nervously. "I… may have misjudged you." He admitted. "We owe you a debt we can never repay."

"We're not here for money." Mark told him. "And we're not done yet."

"He's right." Ghost nodded. "Ironhide Jane was not among the Biters we fought off. She'll try again. She might send a bigger force next time."

Waverly shivered. "So what will you do?" He was afraid that they would leave.

Mark wasn't about to abandon them. They would leave, but only to attack, not to run. "We'll have to take the fight to them." He stated. "Finish them off before they strike back."

"But that would mean assaulting Iron Point." Sharee realised. "That would be madness."

"We're definitely crazy." Jin murmured with a wry smile. "Think about it, if we take them out you'll get guns, resources and your freedom back."

"It sounds good," Sharee muttered. "But just the five of you? You'll all be killed."

"No, we won't." Ghost stated calmly. "We've faced worse enemies than these raiders."

"How far is it to Iron Point?" Mark asked.

"Not too far." Sharee pointed north. "You won't miss it."

"We'll rest for a while, gather our strength." Mark removed the magazine from his carbine. "Reload and prepare to move out."

"You're leaving?" Waverly stared at them as if they had grown more heads.

"If we wait, they'll attack again." Mara explained. "If we move now, we can catch them while they're licking their wounds. Hopefully we'll arrive before sunrise."

"You're all mad." Sharee murmured. "But… there's something about the five of you… you might actually be able to pull this off."

"I know." Jin smirked as he flexed his fingers, making his power fist whirr. "It's what we do."

* * *

_**Updates may be slow, due to the upgraded style and college work. In order to avoid copyright issues, and I'm not the only one recycling **_**Van Buren**_** and **_**Vagrant Lands**_** material, I have changed names and such. If anybody has advice that can help me to improve this story, then just shout.**_


	4. Against the odds

_**Updates will be **_**really **_**slow until June 20**__**th**__**, that's when the exams end. Don't shout, I might not be writing for a while.**_

* * *

"Two minutes out." The driver reported.

"Check your weapons."

The Paladins found it tricky to effectively check their weapons as the APC bounced and shuddered along. The annexation of Canada and the battles in Alaska had left plenty of military vehicles lying around. Many of them were beyond repair, but a few like the APC still worked.

"Rookie, you sure you can handle that weapon?" One of the Paladins, Pars, sneered at another who was sitting at the back. "Wouldn't you prefer something with gunpowder?"

"I'm no rookie." Mikyella, Miky for short, growled through her helmet. She hefted the plasma caster onto her lap and flicked the safeties off. "And my name is Miky."

"I thought it was "Yella" or something like that." Jon said.

Miky sighed. "Mikyella or Miky."

"Enough, you lot." The Knight in charge ordered curtly. "No friendly fire."

Miky sighed again. She was no rookie, but she was newly promoted. Her weapon of choice, the big plasma caster, also attracted a few jibes, that and many of the Paladins wanted to see her _out _of her armour rather than in it.

Under the helmet, she was Hispanic, with dark hair held back in braids and soft grey eyes. She had undergone serious training, training that every Brotherhood Paladin needed to use power armour, which had left her muscled and tough. Apart from a few sorties and a couple of gunfights with local raiders, she was new to combat. Nevertheless, she had taken time to be prepared. She'd made some modifications to her T-47D power armour, to make it less cumbersome. She was strong enough to manage it, but T-47D armour was not as flexible or as sophisticated as the T-51B suits elite Brotherhood of Steel members were issued.

"Relax, Miky," The Paladin on her left, Cran, patted the head of his super sledge almost affectionately. "You melt them, I smash them."

"I'm not nervous." Miky didn't lie. They were going into a small, abandoned bunker with a dozen armoured soldiers and extreme firepower. She wasn't afraid.

"Thirty seconds." The driver stated.

The two Paladins next to the ramp prepared their weapons. Both of them were armed with Gatling lasers.

"If you see anything, shoot first and don't bother with questions." Knight Claude instructed, his voice sounded harsh through his T51-B helmet. He lifted his multi-plas rifle. "Assume hostile."

Miky didn't like that. The Canadian Brotherhood was not as ruthless as some branches of the Brotherhood, but some members still mistrusted the "savages" that lived in the Wasteland.

Maybe that was why Paladins like Pars and Jon mocked her, because she had been recruited from outside the Brotherhood. The Canadian Brotherhood was quite small, smaller now that some of its members had deserted, and they had resorted to bringing in "locals" to bolster their numbers.

"Stopping." The APC squealed to a halt, the brakes were not brilliant.

"Go, go, go!" Claude barked.

The two Paladins with the Gatling lasers went out first, ready to incinerate anything that jumped out to meet them.

"Clear." They announced.

Claude stepped out with the other Paladins in tow. Their target was in front of them and Miky was not impressed.

The building was only one storey tall, crumbling and far from high tech. There wasn't even a door.

"That's it?" Miky wondered aloud.

"Looks can be deceiving." Cran muttered.

"Hoss, go in with Cran and Jon." Claude instructed.

One of the Paladins led the way. The three of them were only in there for five seconds before they came out again and confirmed that the building was empty.

Claude ordered a full search, he was very stubborn, and they all went inside and left the APC and its driver alone.

Miky had serious doubts about this place and imagined that they had been dragged out here for nothing. She had to lift her plasma caster and point it upwards to get it through the narrow doorways, which all lacked doors.

"Found something," Pars reached down into some rubble and shifted it. "Oh."

"What is it?" Claude demanded.

Pars lifted it up and shook his head. "Just a very old girder, I thought it was a gun."

"You could use it as a spear." Miky suggested.

"Yes, well, a primitive like you would say that."

Miky was tempted to point her plasma caster at him. Her expression was impossible to read through her helmet, but Pars could still feel her glare.

"Regroup," Claude called. "We've found something."

Pars walked past Miky, ignoring her angry glare. She reluctantly followed him.

Claude had found a basement, hidden under a ruined cupboard. The metal steps led down to a concrete structure with a heavy steel and lead lined blast door.

"Is this a vault?" Cran inquired.

"No," Jon stated. "This looks like a military bunker."

"Hoss, get it open." Claude ignored Cran and Jon. Hoss stepped up to the console and used a holo-tape loaded with various military codes to open the door. The heavy door hissed and screeched open.

The hallway beyond was a far cry from the derelict building above, it was all metal and concrete. The lighting was off, apart from red emergency lighting, presumably the bunker was running on emergency power.

"Roy, Alons," Claude somehow identified the Paladins, who were armoured from head-to-toe. "Guard the entrance."

The two Paladins flanked the door and the rest of them entered the bunker. Miky glanced back at the door, not knowing that leaving would be much harder and more harrowing.

She had a bad feeling about this place. There was a foul smell that was filtering through her helmet, she couldn't place it though. There was little sound, apart from the clanking of armoured boots on the metal floor and the whirring of servos.

Miky gripped her caster tightly, suddenly nervous.

"Easy," Cran whispered. "We're still in the clear."

How could he tell that she was nervous? "I'm okay." She murmured. Cran was one of her few friends, a big, friendly man who used a super sledge and enjoyed a bit of mayhem. Miky thought that he was slightly mad, but he was still a friend, she was grateful for his concern.

"Can the chatter," Claude muttered. "Hoss, Pars, take point."

Hoss and Pars moved ahead. Both Paladins were armed with laser rifles. Plasma weapons were highly sought after, Miky had been lucky to get her plasma caster, but they were much rarer than laser weapons. Claude was armed with an impressive gauss rifle.

The corridor led them into some kind of military checkpoint, with a desk next to what appeared to be a metal detector. If it was still active then it would hate the Paladins. The security turrets were inactive, out of power.

"Why are they pointing the wrong way?" Miky wondered.

"Maybe they wanted to keep something _in_." Cran suggested.

"Keep moving," Claude gestured at the next corridor. "Hoss, see if you can get any logs out of that terminal."

Hoss put his rifle down on the desk and began to interrogate the computer. He had some skills with computers.

One of the Paladins moved ahead, weapon aimed down the corridor. He passed through the metal detector, or what Miky assumed was a metal detector.

An alarm blared briefly. The turrets snapped round to aim at him.

Before anybody could respond the turrets had started to fire. Fortunately they were only firing small bullets, which bounced off the Paladin's armour.

Miky and Pars opened fire on the turrets, blowing them apart.

"I thought they were dead," Hoss muttered.

"Now they are." Pars lowered his weapon. "You okay?"

The Paladin brushed some metal fragments off his armour and nodded.

"Don't take any chances," Claude ordered. "Move carefully. Mikyella, Cran, Pars, I want you to take point. Cran will take the lead, Pars will follow him, Mikyella will cover you."

Miky did not appreciate that, but an order was an order. She'd made a mistake, she knew that now, the plasma caster was too bulky to use in close quarters. She didn't want to use it as a club.

It made sense for Cran to take the lead, he had the super sledge. The big man clanked ahead, sledge held tightly. His suit's servos whirred with every step.

Miky kept her caster pointed up at the roof. Even though she disliked Pars she didn't want to melt him. She'd settle for punching him in the face later.

She was also aware of Claude stomping along behind her. The man had an unsettling presence, he was stern and about as warm as an icicle. Miky had actually seen snow and ice in the Canadian Wasteland; it was more than cold enough for snow in winter. It had a literal nuclear winter.

"I think you'd better take a look at this, sir." Cran murmured.

Claude pushed past Miky and Pars and entered the next room with Cran. Miky couldn't contain her curiosity and pushed past Pars to see.

The room was spacious, longer than it was wide, and the walls were covered in monitors and computers. The middle of the room was occupied by large cylinders with hazard warnings on them, sealed with steel lids. There were two gantries, on the sides of the room, flanking the metal cylinders.

There was something sinister about the cylinders. Miky could feel it in her gut.

"Hoss," Claude pointed at a terminal.

Hoss never complained. He stepped up to the computer and activated it. Some of the lights flickered as power was diverted to the terminal.

"I'm in." Hoss announced. "I have access to the cylinders."

"Open one of them."

Hoss tapped a few buttons. One of the lids hissed and opened, peeling upwards, away from the cylinder.

A strange green glow emanated from within, along with a gooey bubbling sound.

Miky peered down at the stuff. There was some sort of green liquid inside, bubbling and swirling.

"FEV," Pars breathed. "Goddamn FEV."

There was no mistaking the vile stuff. FEV, Force Evolutionary Virus, was known for creating monsters like the super mutants and centaurs.

What was it doing here though? As far as they knew, the American military had never performed FEV experiments in Canada, which had been close to the frontlines in Alaska and in a place where cultural tensions had been strained and broken.

Maybe that was why it had been abandoned; either that or the people within had left after the nukes had fallen.

"Close it." Claude muttered. "We have a new objective now; we need to blow this place."

"We haven't got any explosives." Pars stated forlornly.

"No need." Claude glanced down the gantries. "This place should have a self-destruct. No sane person would create an FEV lab without a failsafe of some kind."

Miky had heard the horror stories about what happened to people who came into contact with FEV. She could imagine what it was like, drowning in the green liquid as your body warped and changed into something monstrous.

"Miky?" Cran tapped her armoured shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Miky breathed. "I'm fine." She silently cursed her overactive imagination and followed the other Paladins down the hallway.

Her instincts about danger were only nagging her more and more with every step.

_What is that saying? Walk softly and carry a big gun? At least I have a big gun._

Walking softly was just about impossible in power armour, it was too cumbersome and noisy, but Miky couldn't deny the reassurance of inches of armour plating.

Nevertheless, she could feel her heart pounding through the layers of fabrics and metal.

The line of vats ended and they entered another corridor. Miky wondered how far the base went.

They ended up in what appeared to be a second security checkpoint. A sign on the wall told them what it really was.

_Containment control centre. _It was on a sign bolted to the wall, plain and boring; only stating what it needed to.

There was another security scanner, only this one was blocked by an energy field of some kind. Miky knew that the shimmering blue field would not be dissipated by their weapons.

"Hoss, you know what to do." Claude gestured at the terminal in the control booth.

Hoss never complained. He never would get the chance.

Hoss put down his rifle and began to use his codes to enter the system.

"_Quarantine in effect." _A synthesised voice announced. _"Warning: disabling security measures could compromise this facility."_

"Sir?" Hoss inquired.

"Do it." Claude instructed.

"What if there's something dangerous in there?" Miky asked.

Claude glanced at her, his T-51B helmet made him look even more menacing. "Then we kill it."

Pars nudged Miky. "You have a gun, or is that just for show?"

"Fuck off." Miky muttered.

"Paladin." Claude growled.

"Sorry sir." Miky felt her cheeks burn and was grateful for her helmet.

Hoss ignored the argument and overrode the quarantine; access to military codes had a number of perks, but just as many problems.

They were about to see one of them.

The field hissed away. The way was clear.

"Move up," Claude waved one of the Paladins forwards. The armoured soldier walked through the scanner.

"_Intruder alert." _The voice was deeper this time and more final.

This time the turret, hidden behind the scanner, was not loaded with bullets. It was armed with a pair of lasers.

The Paladin screamed as they burned through his armour and skin, burning through his chest.

He was dead before he hit the floor.

"Pulse it!" Claude barked.

Pars lobbed a pulse grenade at the scanner. The electronics crackled and sparked and the turret whirred as it shut down.

Cran hurried to the fallen Paladin and checked for life signs. He shook his head. "He's gone."

"Mikyella, grab his holo-tags." Claude instructed. "Pars, take point with Cran. Weapons free."

Miky swallowed the bile in her throat and ignored the smell of burnt flesh as she plucked the holo-tags from the fallen Paladin.

He would not be the last to fall in this place.

"_Quarantine broken." _The synthesised voice declared ominously. _"Emergency purge recommended, subjects T though Y have been released."_

There were disturbing sounds coming from the corridor now, ranging from roars and hisses, to buzzing and spitting.

"Sir?" Cran edged backwards, gripping his super sledge tightly.

"Stand fast." Claude ordered, lifting his gauss rifle. "That's an order."

Miky felt her hand shake as she charged her plasma caster. She just hoped that it was powerful as it looked.

"Here they come!" Cran barked.

_Here comes what? _Miky couldn't see over Cran's shoulder, he was too big.

He swung his hammer. There was the wet sound of something being crushed and the crunh of bones being smashed.

Something hit Cran, making him stumble backwards.

Pars grabbed the stumbling Paladin, nearly falling as the bigger man collided with him, and pulled him back.

Cran's chest was covered in blood; there was also a long scar where something had slashed him.

Miky moved in and saw them, creatures that made her blood run cold and her breath stop.

Some of them were shambling masses of mutated flesh, others were just wrong, they had too many limbs or two heads.

One stood out among the rest, it seemed to be leading them. A super mutant with a warped face and red skin. Miky realised that it was raw muscle with no skin to cover it.

A lizard like creature that came up to her waist was bearing down on her, with coppery scales and a maw full of sharp fangs. A gout of flame flickered from its mouth.

A dragon, so they really had been genetic experiments.

Miky squeezed the trigger. There was a flash of green light as a bolt of plasma hit the dragon.

Lasers tended to disintegrate and burn targets, plasma turned them into glowing sludge.

The dragon's snout was gone, turned into goo, and the mutant fell into its own remains.

_Only one of hundreds. _Miky thought darkly. _Well bring it on! If I'm going to die, I'm going to go down fighting!_

She gritted her teeth and opened fire, firing bolt after bolt after bolt into the horde of mutants.

They kept on coming, get closer despite the flashes of energy weapons fire hitting them.

"_For the Brotherhood of Steel!"_

Miky could hear determined yelling, a battle cry, and realised that she was the one who was shouting.

Pars was jumped by a hunter, but Miky turned and blasted it in half. The giant wasp fell in two halves; most of its thorax was melted. Pars struggled to his feet, his chest covered in green gloop.

A round from Claude's gauss rifle sent a super mutant flying. Cran was smashing anything that came too close.

Then the lights went out.

The next few seconds were flashing bloody chaos. Miky could hear screams and roars as the creatures overran them.

She kept on firing. Her weapon clicked empty just as a hunter buzzed towards her, its multi-faceted eyes were full of menace.

Miky lunged forwards, using the prongs of her plasma caster to impale the creature. Ichor splattered her weapon and she yanked it free and slapped an EC pack in.

There was another scream and blood hit her, blood from one of her comrades. She just kept on fighting, until the last breath.

Something slammed into her and she hit the ground. Slowly, her vision clouded over.

_At least I went down fighting… but I'm so... scared..._

* * *

Mark slotted the last bullet into the magazine before loading it into the carbine. He racked a round into the chamber. He checked his pistol next, his trusty 9mm pistol. He pulled the slide back slightly; he saw a bullet in the chamber and released the slide. He returned the gun to its holster and slung his carbine across his back.

Emily looked up from her pip-boy, reading his expression. "Are we heading out?"

"Yeah," Mark confirmed. "Are you ready?"

Emily nodded. "Yes."

Mark stood up, extended his hand. Emily took it and he pulled her close and kissed her.

"Aww," Mara smiled. "You two make such a cute couple."

"You say that a lot." Mark said.

"That's because it's true." Mara smiled. "Are you two ready?"

"Yes."

Mara nodded. "Then it's time to kick some ass. Ghost and Jin are waiting at the gate."

Ghost was a patient man, as a ghoul he had many years left to go. He'd probably end up looking more like a corpse before he died, but he didn't care. At least his eyesight was as good as it had always been, for as long as he could remember anyway.

Canada was a nice place in his eyes, he could see why Mark and Emily were keen to explore. Maybe Jin and Mara could find something here too. Perhaps there would even be a place for Ghost. Ghouls were not popular, but life with the Misfits had taught him that not all humans hated his kind.

He noticed a child lingering behind a crate, peering at him. He was afraid of him.

Looking like a rotted corpse was bad enough, not that Ghost cared anymore, but being similar to mad flesh eating ghouls was the worst part.

"Here," Jin held out a magazine filled with bullets. "The same calibre as your rifle, a lucky find, none of the settlers use them."

Ghost took the magazine and slotted it into a pouch. "Thanks," he nodded.

He glanced at the child again. The child shivered and ran off.

Jin sighed. "It's difficult, isn't it?"

"I've learnt to cope with it." Ghost spoke honestly. "I know I look bad, and people are scared of ghouls because of the ferals."

"I knew a ghoul in Freeside." Jin recalled. "Funny guy, great mechanic, he went off in search of a better place though."

"Did he make it?"

"I don't know." Jin shrugged. "I never saw him again, but I heard rumours about ghoul communities across the wasteland, even one about a bunch of ghouls who were trying to go into space."

"You've got to be kidding."

"I don't know if it's true either." Jin admitted. "Here they come."

Mark and the others were heading for the gates. Emily was checking the map on her pip-boy. There were very few locations on it for the Canadian Wasteland, she intended to add more.

"How long have we got?" Jin asked.

"Roughly three hours before sunrise." Emily answered. "According to Sharee, Iron Point is about two hours away if we go directly."

"Then we'd better get going." Ghost stated, leaning his rifle against his shoulder.

They were in high spirits, despite their plan to attack a heavily armed raider group. They also had to cross a hostile land, one they knew very little about.

They would soon learn plenty.

* * *

_**Just to clarify; Mikyella's name is pronounced Miky-ella. Miky just sounds like Mickey. **_

_**Addressing Ray-kun's question, I did not name Huxley after Aldous Huxley. Huxley was one of the original names for Victor Presper, who the Huxley in this story is slightly based off. **_


End file.
